In April, reader Hempenstein called my attention to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporting the paper’s survey of 106 Pennsylvania high-school science teachers. The disturbing result was that more than 32% of the teachers adhered to some form of creationism. Naturally, because I’m a radical evolutionary atheist (and a member of the Darwin Lobby), I wrote an outraged post on this site.

One of the surveyed teachers made the mistake of admitting publicly, using his name, that he actually teaches creationism in his classroom. To wit (my emphasis):

“Sometimes students honestly look me in the eye and ask what do I think? I tell them that I personally hold the Bible as the source of truth,” said Joe Sohmer, who teaches chemistry at the Altoona Area High School. The topic arises, he said, when he teaches radiocarbon dating, with that method often concluding archeological finds to be older than 10,000 years, which he says is the Bible-based age of Earth. “I tell them that I don’t think [radiocarbon dating] is as valid as the textbook says it is, noting other scientific problems with the dating method.

“Kids ask all kinds of personal questions and that’s one I don’t shy away from,” he said. “It doesn’t in any way disrupt the educational process. I’m entitled to my beliefs as much as the evolutionist is.” [JAC: yeah, but he’s not entitled to foist them as science on credulous high-school students!]

Mr. Sohmer responded to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette questionnaire distributed this spring to school teachers statewide, and he agreed to discuss his teaching philosophy. He said school officials are comfortable with his methods.

Can you believe it? “Comfortable with his methods?” BIG mistake.  You can quibble about whether it’s okay to teach intelligent design in public colleges, but it’s settled law—especially in Pennsylvania, where the Dover case was adjudicated—that you can’t teach religiously based, discredited science in high schools. Teachers can’t do it, and school officials can’t sanction it.

It was a matter of a few seconds for me to email that article (thanks, Hempenstein!) to the Freedom from Religion Foundation. One of their crack attorneys, Rebecca Market, got on the case and sent this letter to the superintendent of the Altoona School District several weeks ago.

Something tells me that Joe Sohmer won’t be teaching his students muich longer that the Earth is 10,000 years old and that radiocarbon dating is wrong. (And, as a reader below notes, the Earth isn’t dated by radicarbon dating, as carbon decays much too quickly for that. Potassium/argon and other methods are used.)

Altoona hasn’t yet responded, but watch this space.

The Post-Gazette reports that other teachers—who wisely chose to remain anonymous—also purvey creationism in Pennsylvania high schools. Ignorance is busy and ever feeding. For the article also reports this result of another survey of over 900 American science teachers by Pennsylvania State University researchers:

The Penn State survey said the teachers identifying themselves as creationists spend at least an hour of classroom time on creationism in a way suggesting it to be a valid scientific alternative. “Between 17 and 21 percent [of teachers in the survey] introduce creationism into the classroom,” he said. “Some are young-Earth creationist but not all of them are. Some aren’t even creationists.”

The only excuse for teaching creationism if you’re not a creationist is either fear of backlash from religious students or parents, or a misguided sense of “let’s-teach-all-sides”.

What we hear in the press is only the tip of the creationist iceberg. For to bring Constitutional violations like this to public attention, somebody like Sohmer has to slip up, or some offended student or parent has to complain. And complaining about religion in the classroom will, in many parts of the U.S., turn you into an outcast. Remember Jessica Ahlquist? read the Wikipedia section about the threats she received.

Finally, it was reader Hempenstein, an old college friend, who got this ball rolling.  If you hear of any violations like this in U.S. public schools, send them to either me or, preferably, the Freedom from Religion Foundation.